


Measuring Life in Teaspoons

by inawasteland



Series: 25 Days of Rooster Teeth [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Barista AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2710982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inawasteland/pseuds/inawasteland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan is a barista at a coffeeshop and Gavin is a regular but has barely said more than a few words at a time.  Until one day, when his laptop is conveniently missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Measuring Life in Teaspoons

The job wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but serving coffee and teas to the snooty patrons of the Flying Saucer could see some improvement. For instance, it would be nice if there was a no custom drinks rule. Ryan _hated_ making custom drinks. The fairly generic one flavored syrup added to a latte was one thing. That was easy enough. But _nobody needed three shots of espresso and five pumps of syrup._

While Ryan tried not to gag too much while making the drinks, he at least has to admit that he would much rather be a barista here than at Starbucks. They seemed to get the worst customers. But they were competition, so Ryan had to show disdain for them even if he felt mostly sympathy.

The patrons that he did get, other than the ones with the crazy drink orders, were not too bad. Especially the regulars who always ordered the same drinks. They made his life easy, since he had memorized them by now and they always tipped so well.

Ah yes, the tips. The best part of the job was sweet talking the ladies. He always managed to get such good tips that way.

But there was one regular that never ordered coffee. He ordered a tea and sat in the corner with his laptop and Ryan always brought the tea back to him when it finished steeping. And all this time, Ryan still managed to barely say a word to him.

In fact, their exchanges usually went like this:

“Your tea, sir.”

“Oh, thank you!”

And then the stranger would dive deep into his work while Ryan tried not to blush too much. At least he had the courtesy of waiting until he was turned away from the guy to do anything truly telling.

Then, one day, the cycle changed.

The stranger didn’t have his laptop, but he still ordered the same tea.

“Your tea, sir.”

“Oh, thank you!” There was a pause, and Ryan was about to turn around and head back to the counter when he heard that voice speak up again. “Ryan, is it? You never fail get my tea at just the right consistency and temperature.” And somehow all this time he only _just_ picked up on the accent. Apparently it was not nearly as noticeable only saying a few words every exchange they had before.

Ryan froze where he was, not even sure how to respond to this. The guy hadn’t said anything to him for months and suddenly this?

“I’m Gavin, by the way,” he replied with a grin and stuck out his hand. Ryan hesitantly shook it, figuring there was no harm in being friendly.

“Yeah, Ryan,” he finally spoke up, remembering that he could, in fact, talk. “Nice to meet you, Gavin. Glad my tea brewing skills meet your standards.” He smiled sheepishly and let his hands fold behind his back, for lack of a better way to stand as he waited for Gavin to be satisfied and move back to his tea.

“Not too many Americans know how to brew a good cup of tea. Why do you think I keep coming back?” Gavin went on. Ryan was mainly just shocked that Gavin was still talking to him.

Ryan shrugged in response. To him, it wasn’t that difficult to brew tea. Just keep the water at a certain temperature, time the steeping. It was how he was trained, so it didn’t make him seem any more special than anyone else.

“That’s just what we were trained to do,” Ryan responded, glancing back at the counter to make sure nobody was waiting to order. It was a slow day, at least. But it was what Gavin ended with - “ _Why do you think I keep coming back?”_ \- that was ringing in his head. Why was it that his heart ached just a little bit at that revelation?

“Well you are certainly better trained than most baristas, I will put it that way.” Gavin’s cheeky smile was infectious and soon Ryan was grinning as well.

“Thank you, I will accept your compliment and wear it with pride.” Ryan was full on beaming, but that was short-lived when he heard the ding of the bell at the door which signaled another customer had arrived. So much for spending an impromptu break chatting with this guy, whose name he finally discovered.

Gavin’s eyes followed Ryan’s gaze, and he noticed the new patron. Ryan turned back to Gavin with a sad smile and a shrug.

“Guess that means you’ll be leaving me then.” A pause. “What time do you get off work?”

Which surprised Ryan, seeing as how they only just started _actually_ talking, but considering how few time he normally had for talking, it made sense to extend their chatting to after-work hours.

“Assuming Lindsay come in to relieve me of my shift, I get off in two hours,” Ryan stated as he glanced at the nearby clock and quickly did the math in his head.

“Oh yeah, I’ll _bet_ you do,” Gavin retaliated with a waggle of his eyebrows. His voice had gone really deep in his throat and welp, Ryan couldn’t hide a blush at that insinuation even if he wanted to.

Ryan opened his mouth to say something, closed his mouth, and then opened it again. And closed it again because yeah, nope, he had nothing to say to that. Gavin had left him speechless.

“I’ll see you in two hours, you’d better get movin’, wouldn’t want you to get absolutely mullered on my account.” Ryan ignored the apparently made up words in favor of the first part of Gavin’s statement. He simply nodded and gave Gavin a quick wave as he backed away slowly.

“Meet you out back, yeah?” Ryan curled the corner of his lips in a small smile and hoped that he wasn’t going to regret this. But then Gavin was smiling normally again and there was just something about that smile that eased his mind. Yeah, he was making the right decision.

Gavin waved as Ryan returned to the counter and helped the poor customer that came in while Gavin was nudging himself into Ryan’s life.

And when Lindsay showed up promptly in two hours, Ryan wasted no time in ripping off his apron. Gavin had, by then, finished his tea and left the Flying Saucer, but sure enough, as Ryan exited the premises, Gavin was waiting there with that same cheeky smile from earlier.

“So, I was going to ask you out for coffee, but seeing as you are probably sick of coffee, how about we just do dinner?” Gavin suggested, gesturing across the street.

Ryan was relieved when Gavin assumed correctly. There was only so much coffee he could take.

“Yeah, any suggestions?” was Ryan’s response. He figured, Gavin was the one who rallied him here, he probably had an idea of what they should do.

“Do you happen to like Indian food?”

And with Ryan’s vigorous nod of affirmative, the duo walked on to enjoy a nice, quiet evening of Indian food and getting to know each other.

The next day, when Gavin showed back up at the Flying Saucer, he made sure to time it so that Ryan was on his break, and ordered two teas instead of one.


End file.
